There’s one bank account that Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara can’t get his asset-freezing fingers on as he plans a likely multimillion-dollar restitution order against Sheldon Silver: the pol’s campaign war chest, which Silver can continue to use to pay legal fees.
Records show that the former Assembly speaker spent $1.5 million from his campaign account on lawyers in January and February and had $1.7 million left as of July.
Crusaders for campaign reform say it’s galling that state election law allows even a convicted politician to use campaign cash to try to beat prison time. “Campaign contributions should be used only for campaigns, not get-out-of-jail cards,” said Blair Horner of NYPIRG.
Silver looked peeved as photographers swarmed him Wednesday, two days after he was convicted by a Manhattan federal jury on corruption charges.